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“Yeah, fine.”
He pulled into his driveway. “You sure?”
I grabbed my bag and paused with my fingers on the door handle. “You caught me off-guard, Lombardi, that’s all. No girl – no matter how smart – is going to be unaffected by you saying something like that.”
Before he could say anything, I threw the door open and climbed out.
But, the bastard was quick as he was standing in front of me when I finally got both my feet on the ground without falling over and closed the door. He was looking at me in concern and…Dear God, let that not be pity…
“Barlow?” he said, his tone a warning.
“I amfine. Okay?” I made to push past him, but he stopped me.
“I know you’re not stupid enough to fall for me…are you?”
“I like how that sounds awfully one-sided,” I huffed.
Roman grimaced, then pulled the back door of the car open. “Maybe, Barlow, just maybe,” he said softly as he got the sleeping Maddy out of her car seat. I watched her snuggle into him and it really wasn’t helping the conversation. But, I knew he needed her as a shield, “that’s becauseI’mnot too stupid.” He closed the door quietly and turned to me.
I looked at him, completely dumbfounded. “What?”
He smoothed Maddy’s hair and stepped towards me. “Maybe I’m not too stupid and maybe it doesn’t matter either way because we both know I will never be that guy, Piper. Even if I wanted to be – even if it was foryou– I don’t have it in me. Whatever this thing was, it was only ever lasting until Carter pulled his fuc–” He stopped himself, glanced at Maddy and sighed, “–his finger out and asked you out. It was a bit of fun, nothing more, and now it’s over.”
“Roman, I…”
I looked at him, not sure about anything anymore; if he’d had a planned expiry for whatever we were doing this the whole time, how did that change things? I thought he’d enjoyed my company, but would he have got bored if he’d seen an end in sight? Probably not. Easy Piper Barlow next door was a guaranteed lay without any risk of commitment, and that was definitely not going anywhere. So, what if he’d actually already got bored and just hid it really well? He’d only have to stick it out a little longer and then I wouldn’t be his problem…
I bit my lip and frowned. So many things were on the tip of my tongue. But, I didn’t know what to start with and nothing was polite enough to step forward for me to say it.
“What time’s your date?” he asked softly, cupping my cheek.
Not that itwasa date.
“I…” I took a deep breath and looked at Maddy’s shoe against his leg. “I told him I was busy…” I swung my face out of his hand.
“What? Why?”
“You were feeling shit and I said I’d be there. Foolishly, I thought you needed me tonight. So, I… Not that it was a date. But, no date.” I rearranged my bag strap on my shoulder. “Bye, Roman. Tell Maddy I hope she feels better.”
“Piper,” he called in a harsh whisper, but I shook my head and ducked into my house as quickly as I could.
Of course I’d been stupid enough to think that Roman and I were friends. Friends with spectacular benefits, it’s true. But, I’d honestly felt the most normal with him than I had in longer than I really remembered. There was no bullshit between us; we said exactly what we meant, what we felt – even if it didn’t make sense to us at the time – and didn’t have to worry the other one was going to look at them differently. I could be in a foul mood and he didn’t care. Well, I mean, I thought he’d cared…as it were…but…
“Ugh, get over it, Piper,” I muttered to myself as I threw my bag on my bedroom floor. I dropped onto my bed and sighed.
‘It was a bit of fun, nothing more, and now it’s over,’ he’d said.
“Friendship included.”If we’d ever even really had that to begin with…
I took a deep breath and told myself that wasn’t tears that I felt threatening at the assumption that the time I’d been waiting for had come. Roman was moving on and I was going to keep telling myself it was okay.
